The Broken Sword
The Broken Sword Tavern was a small, dinghy drinking hole in the Godsgrove district of Bregate, located in a dilapidated slum in the northern end on a derelict street. Behind the bar in the tavern's common room, across from its stone hearth, a stone door lead into a secret sanctuary established by Lord-Inquisitor Judicaël in 5E.1499, during the first outbreak of the Rasping Pox. Judicaël commissioned the sanctuary built to protect Sól's faithful and to serve as a staging point for the Inquisition's purges. When the infestation was defeated, it fell out of use until 5E.1521, when Dame Solveig of the White Rose was given the sanctuary as a base camp in her hunt for the city's Infernal Pact cultists, a joint mission with the Inquisition. Solveig was thus assisted by Banys Cindershield, a dwarven Inquisitor. Biggs and Wedge were the two initiates of the White Rose sworn to Solveig; they spent most of their time protecting the shrine. The sanctuary itself was composed of eight bedrooms, a great hall, a large library, an arcane circle, and a chapel to Sól. The Heroes of Blackbridge stayed at the sanctuary during their adventures in Bregate, brief though they were. They met Judicaël within its walls, who entrusted Lemuel with a magical two-way communication ring, warning them and explaining his suspicions about Tegwen. Afterwards, the adventurers met with Solveig and learned of various ills affecting the city: the disappearance of Dulcinea Gardner and Aeron Cyrill, the freak death of a member of the Lowport Priory of arrest of the lungs, and the robbery of the stores of the Arcane Academy of Bregate. Although the adventurers focused on the missing noble scions, they would eventually investigate all possible leads on the Infernal Pact and Caer Cythraul. During their stay at the sanctuary, after their rescue of Aeron Cyrill, their learning of the fate of Dulcinea Gardner, who evaded them still, and their slaying of Farquhar Thorne, Peredur Gower departed the Heroes of Blackbridge, leaving his companions behind and taking a share of the loot with him, along with Orc's Lament. The departure of Peredur Gower and the failure to learn further information about the Infernal Pact lead to the end of the Heroes of Blackbridge, who went their separate ways. Lemuel of Ryfall and Volkarr Broken-Tooth traveled to Kerry after learning rumors that the plague had reached the Hinterlands, while Silas Rooke departed on personal business. Bishop Anselm the Holy thus turned to the Cardinals for further aid, becoming the architect of the Fifth Crusade. The advent of High Marshal Reiner Faron's Army of God lead to the end of the joint mission by the White Rose and the Inquisition to defeat the Infernal Pact as it became the sole territory of the Fifth Crusade; Banys Cindershield rejoined the Inquisition while Solveig rejoined the White Rose, and the Broken Sword Sanctuary was thus abandoned. The structure itself was likely destroyed in the Deluge when the Worldwound opened up beneath the waters of Lake Loinnir, forming the Lake of Darkness and laying waste to Bregate in the resulting great flood.